“Massa Very Good to Tony” The family of Captain William Giles - encounters with slavery
Cumbria Family History Society, 2007
A lecture given to the Cumbria Family History Society Annual Conference in November 2007 was produced in booklet form and deposited in the Cumbria Record Office at Carlisle. To mark the bicentenary, John A. Ferguson researched the story of a former slave from Jamaica who lived in Cumberland. Captain William Giles of the British Army served in the West Indies in the 1780s, settling with his family in Jamaica. When the family returned to England, they brought with them James Anthony, known as "Tony", their former domestic slave. Tony was later servant to several other families in Carlisle, and is buried in St Mary's churchyard.
